JDRF Walk and Rock the Park

09/06/2013 12:23 PM

09/11/2013 11:47 AM

JDRF Walk and Rock the Park

09/11/2013 11:47 AM

Ashley Peters was diagnosed with type one diabetes just three years ago.
"No one ever expects that. You know, especially because I was 22," Peters said.
Type One diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, affects 15,000 people in West Texas, and 85 percent of them are actually adults.

Ashley Peters was diagnosed with type one diabetes just three years ago.

"No one ever expects that. You know, especially because I was 22," Peters said.

Type One diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, affects 15,000 people in West Texas, and 85 percent of them are actually adults.

But regardless of age, this disease means day to day life will never be the same for those who are diagnosed, and often for their families as well.

"Being a mom, especially to a toddler that's active, I have to really think about my blood sugar all the time. It's hard even being an adult, you know I was lucky enough to have a normal childhood, I guess. You know, a lot of these kids have to go through so much and I can't imagine what they or their parents go through," Peters said.

That's why Panhandle residents will walk and rock the park Saturday to benefit the Panhandle JDRF.

According to local representatives, walking this weekend allows researchers to make strides towards treatments and a cure every day.

"We want the medications and the treatments to be less invasive, less painful, less often, and so the treatments we're looking at are things that are encapsulations, and beta cells and an artifical pancreas," Kristy Wilkerson, the Panhandle JDRF Branch Manager said.

The JDRF motto says it best. They're hoping to discover the cause of this disease and "Turn type one, into type none."